The Colombian Exchange is the transfer of diseases, ideas, people, and food between the New World (America) and the Old World (Europe and Asia) following the voyage to North America by Christopher Columbus in 1492. Infectious disease had a huge impact on the world following the start of the exchange. Eighty to ninety percent of Native Americans died because of diseases like influenza, typhoid, measles and smallpox. The Europeans did not intentionally use the diseases to kill the Natives. People moved to the New World and plants and animals were traded. This exchange of plants and animals transformed the world's ways of life. New foods became staples of other cultures, and fresh land was open for farming.
The Colombian Exchange is the transfer of diseases, ideas, people, and food between the New World (America) and the Old World (Europe and Asia) following the voyage to North America by Christopher Columbus in 1492. Infectious disease had a huge impact on the world following the start of the exchange. Eighty to ninety percent of Native Americans died because of diseases like influenza, typhoid, measles and smallpox. The Europeans did not intentionally use the diseases to kill the Natives. People moved to the New World and plants and animals were traded. This exchange of plants and animals transformed the world's ways of life. New foods became staples of other cultures, and fresh land was open for farming.